A Life in a Day is a cycle of four 'choral songs' each representing a time of day:

1. DawnElla Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) (2’15”)

2. Silent NoonDante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) (5 mins)

3. Evening George Houghton (1850-1891) (3 mins)

4. The Night Edwin Curran (1892-? - public domain) (3 mins)

The cycle was composed in January 2014 for the Cavatina Singer’s 30th anniversary concert given on 17th May. The commission was originally instigated late in 2013 by Victoria Pilley who was then the choir’s musical director. The first performance was conducted by Victoria’s successor James Bingham.

It was my wife Fiona who suggested the idea to base the cycle on different times of the day - she also found and chose the texts.

Originally the set was only going to consist of three numbers. However, I soon realized that the music I had started to Evening wasn’t going to work - it was too dark sounding. This led to the inclusion of Edwin Curran’s The Night - which seemed to work much better with the music I had just written for Evening! Not to be left out, however, Evening soon had its own music. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to squeeze in Morning Coffee or Afternoon Tea - perhaps next time.